very simple

Sometimes you really have to make sure to look up when you’re wandering around the city. The Chrysler building is my favorite piece of architecture in NYC, and tonight I took a different exit out of GCT and saw this.

A new post!!

I know.  I’m a terrible terrible blogger.  And I’ve already posted this pic on twitter, but I was so struck by how it looked when I was waiting for the train home tonight that I felt compelled to take a picture of the sunset and save it somewhere with a bit more permanence than my twitter feed.

London pics are still to be done, but there are just so many of them that it will be a while before I get through that much editing.

But today, I took a trip down to the 9/11 Memorial. I got my ticket a few months ago and had almost forgotten about it, but I didn’t want to let it go to waste (even though it was free, there is a lengthy wait since they’re limiting entrances). It was a little jarring to be in the middle of what is, essentially, a giant construction zone, but the memorial itself is just…beautiful and moving. And my ticket was for 4 pm, so i got to see the lights go on at dusk.

Some pictures…

On Monday, I decided to go super-tourist and spent the day taking tours of the tower of London, which is one of the few things I hadn’t actually seen in my many prior trips to this city. On Tuesday, I met up with my brother in camden town, where we got lunch and I proceeded to take zero pictures. But I did stop at covent garden on my way back and snapped a few shots there. I also met up with some colleagues from my new job for drinks last night, and may now be regretting the bottle of wine we split. But that was quite fun as well.

The tower was actually quite fun. The beefeaters who give the free tours are clearly chosen for their personalities, because our guide was a complete blast. As usual, pictures of the full days will get posted when I’m home, but here’s a sampling of a beefeater guarding the jewel house and an entrance at covent garden.

Today, my brother was very excited to take me to borough market, which is essentially the green market on the south side of the Thames. Of course, remembrance Sunday put a damper in those plans, as pretty much everything was closed. Including the train to take me to borough station, forcing me (the horror) to walk from Bank station, where I accidentally emerged at street level in the middle of some sort of procession/parade across London bridge. Which was, in actuality, quite lovely.

So then, in search of something to see and/or eat, we ended up walking all the way down Thames walk to black friar bridge, back across, and taking a tour of LSE, before having a classic pub lunch.

Again, more pictures will follow once I arrive home, but today’s photo of the day is the view of the millennium bridge and st. Paul’s. And I didn’t even edit this. It’s really this beautiful out here.

Last night I arrived in London, on what amounts to my first real vacation since 2009. I’ve said it elsewhere, but it really took having a job again to appreciate having time off. As much as I tried to ‘enjoy’ my period of unemployment, there was a constant undercurrent of worry, and I certainly wasn’t going to travel anywhere extravagant, if for no other reason than the thought that the minute I stepped away from New York would be the exact minute a headhunter with the perfect job would come looking for me.

So anyway, I’m in London, ostensibly to visit my brother, and to see a few other folks, including meeting some people I actually work with but have never met in person, and catching up with a few former colleagues on this side of the pond.

Today, since my brother had a conference to go to, I took myself to the British museum. A full set of photos will get uploaded once I can edit them properly on my computer, but I thought I’d start off by testing my camera to iPad adapter by showing photographic proof that I’m actually here.

So, I finally decided to download my photos from Labor Day weekend, given that it’s almost November and I haven’t even put up a post since September. I’ll blame that part on the whole ‘having a job’ thing, even though, truth be told, I do have my weekends free. I’m just lazy.

But that started me down a wonderful journey of discovering that there was some sort of script error in my blog installation, which forced me to spend the last three hours venturing further down the rabbit hole of wordpress reinstallations, backups, “emergency” password fixes after wordpress decided to no longer recognize me…fun stuff.

it all appears to be (hopefully) working again, at least insofar as I can actually log in and write a post, but I had to delete a lot of plugin customizations particularly around stats. Not that anyone reads this thing anyway, so I guess that’s no great loss!

Anyway…on to the original point of this post. Labor Day weekend, as usual, was spent in the Berkshires. This year it was very rainy, so we ventured up to The Clark in Williamstown to check out some of the art. The coolest thing was an exhibit by El Anatsui, a Ghanaian artist who refashions the multitude of liquor bottles foisted upon the local population into beautiful wall hangings. So this is mostly that. As always, click on the thumbnail to get the full image.

I think this is the 3rd or 4th year that the city is running summer streets, which consists of shutting down Park Ave. from 72nd Street to the Brooklyn Bridge until 1pm for 3 Saturdays in August. Truth be told, at this point I kind of which they’d vary it up a bit and pick a different street to go down, but I understand why they like Park, given that it’s the only true two way Avenue in the city, and has natural barriers between the north and south-bound lanes. All that being said, I did make it out there yesterday, with my camera and everything, and biked down to Soho. I was attempting to meet up with some folks at the Bicycle Habitat booth, but we missed each other. I did manage to find them later at the lunch meeting spot, so it all ended up fun. Thankfully, yesterday was a brilliantly gorgeous day to boot, given that today the current weather consists of massive thunderstorms that are predicted to go on all day.

Some pics from the ride (as always, click on the thumbnail to see the whole image):

Last weekend, I joined my friend/co-worker Willie for a walking tour that he gives periodically through central park. We started at columbus circle and walked (windingly) up to Belvedere Castle. And I took some pictures (obviously). As always, click on the thumbnail to see the whole thing.

I’ve been hunting for a new morning coffee spot, due to the fact that the cafe I pretty much lived at during my unemployment has gone drastically downhill in the past few weeks. Things ranging from price increases to the fact that they didn’t have any sugar one morning, not to mention the bathroom being out of service for several weeks, have made me long for a change of pace. And then my dad reminded me that there’s a Le Pain Quotidien right in the center of Central Park. Now, I can generally take or leave LPQ as an establishment, but this particular setting was perfect. I spent about an hour over there this morning (during leash-free park hours, so the place was somewhat overrun by very adorable free-ranging dogs), and I can safely say that I’ve found my new spot. At least while it’s nice out, since it’s all outdoor seating.

As a bonus, this is my view walking to and from the cafe/my apartment.